I don’t know if we will see the full impact of this. Libraries are measured community by community with no overseeing authority. There can’t be any unified front on this. Anyone making a public statement would be doing so for political reasons. I think there can be a political boycott and there is a practicality boycott.

On the practicality boycott front, Overdrive has moved HarperCollins books into a special section of their ordering process. That could create a chilling effect for purchasing. We can’t measure that. I would be interested to see if libraries are purchasing less HC ebooks after a few months. Right now all a boycott is doing is giving HarperCollins a lot of bad press. Is it is enough?

Yeah, it’s pretty hard to tell impact unless we saw numbers on HC titles pre and post policy change. Which I don’t think we’d get to see in the near future, if ever.

Maybe it’s me, but who wants to be a company that libraries boycott? This is where our public image as being mild mannered and generally likeable really kicks in. What author will want to sign with a publisher that is at odds with libraries? Ok, maybe that is a bit overstating it, but still…

We haven’t discussed boycotting HC in its entirety, just their ebooks. Most libraries I’ve talked with will still purchase Steve Martini in print (and large print)….(and paperback)….(and audio CD)….(and in Spanish)…..(and in Polish).

The Overdrive consortium we are with, though recently discussed not purchasing HC ebooks. The collection development committee was split fairly evenly in providing titles the patrons wanted vs. ensuring the most effective use of the consortium’s money.

The compromise we came up with and will send to the membership at large is this – we’ll only purchase HC titles when they are specifically requested by our patrons.

This may change as a result of feedback of our member libraries or when we determine what the other consortia in our state will do (it’d be nice to have a solid front). But even if it doesn’t, it will dramatically reduce the HC titles we buy simply because it’s a pain in the a** to fill out that title request form.

So i am a new graduate with no library job and I think it makes sense to make a campaign BIGGER than just libraries (heck who listens to librarians anyway frankly). I find this policy outrageous and dangerous but am in no position vis-a-vis a library job to boycott. Why not ask Kindle and Nook readers to not purchase Harper Collins Books until they change this draconian new policy? I would be down with that and there could be a form letter via Facebook for people to send to Harper Collins letting them know that we are not purchasing any Harper Collins ebooks?